Nova Patents
US9053636B2

Management center module for advanced lane management assist for automated vehicles and conventionally driven vehicles

Summary by NHIP

Dynamic Lane Management Data Processing

The method processes unprocessed highway data from traffic management centers by combining it with static database information to generate structured guidance data. This data utilizes a barrel-and-zone structure defined by physical roadway changes, permanent regulatory shifts, and dynamic traffic conditions from ramps and active devices to assist vehicle lane and speed selection.

Claim Score by NHIP

Read claim 1, the broadest

Abstract

The automated lane management assist method, data structure and system receive unprocessed lane-specific limited-access highway information, including lane use and speed limits, from freeway transportation management centers or traffic management centers, process and convert the unprocessed information to a form that assists in the selection of driving lanes and target speeds for vehicles, and communicate the processed information to the vehicles by suitable means.

US9053636B2, drawing sheet 1
Sheet 1 of 19

Term

Projected expiry 17 December 2033.

  1. Priority
  2. Filed
  3. Granted
  4. Today
  5. Projected expiry

18 claims: 3 independent, 15 dependent

  1. 1
    Broadest claimClaim Score 24, narrow(NHIP)A method of assisting in selection of driving lanes and target speeds for vehicles, comprising the steps of:a. receiving unprocessed lane-specific limited-access highway data from a traffic management center (TMC);b. combining the unprocessed lane-specific limited-access highway data with data from a static database to create intermediate lane-specific limited-access highway data;c. generating processed lane-specific limited-access highway data from the intermediate lane-specific limited-access highway data, said processed lane-specific limited-access highway data conforming to a data structure comprising barrels divided into zones, wherein boundaries of the barrels are defined by physical roadway configuration changes and permanent changes in regulatory use of the limited-access highway lanes and wherein boundaries of the zones are defined by changes in traffic conditions along the limited-access highway resulting from entry ramps and exit ramps and locations of motorist information devices and regulatory devices that provide changeable information and active traffic management control of the limited-access highway;and d. providing the processed lane-specific limited-access highway data to one or more vehicles, said processed lane-specific limited-access highway data enabling an in-vehicle guidance assist vehicle module of the one or more vehicles to select a preferred lane and target speed for the preferred lane using a copy or a subset of the static database.
  2. 13
    A non-transitory computer-implemented roadway zone based data structure for expressing traffic parameters, incident data, regulatory data and toll information in geographical segments that are appropriate for limited-access highway lane selection and target speed selection for the chosen lanes, said data structure comprising:a. at least one interface for receiving unprocessed lane-specific limited-access highway data from a traffic management center;and b. a processor coupled to the at least one interface, wherein the processor receives the unprocessed lane-specific limited-access highway data through the at least one interface, processes the unprocessed lane-specific limited-access highway data, generates processed lane-specific limited-access highway data conforming to a data structure comprising barrels divided into zones, wherein boundaries of the barrels are defined by physical roadway configuration changes and permanent changes in regulatory use of the limited-access highway lanes and wherein boundaries of the zones are defined by changes in traffic conditions along the limited-access highway resulting from entry ramps and exit ramps and locations of motorist information devices and regulatory devices that provide changeable information and active traffic management control of the limited-access highway and transmits processed lane-specific limited-access highway data to at least one vehicle in a form appropriate for limited-access highway lane selection and target speed selection for the chosen lanes.
  3. 16
    A system for assisting in selection of driving lanes and target speeds for vehicles, comprising:a. an interface for receiving unprocessed lane-specific limited-access highway data from a traffic management center;b. a processor coupled to the interface, wherein the processor receives the unprocessed lane-specific limited-access highway data through the interface, processes the unprocessed lane-specific limited-access highway data, generates processed lane-specific limited-access highway data conforming to a data structure comprising barrels divided into zones, wherein boundaries of the barrels are defined by physical roadway configuration changes and permanent changes in regulatory use of the limited-access highway lanes and wherein boundaries of the zones are defined by changes in traffic conditions along the limited-access highway resulting from entry ramps and exit ramps and locations of motorist information devices and regulatory devices that provide changeable information and active traffic management control of the limited-access highway, and transmits processed lane-specific limited-access highway data to one or more vehicles;and c. one or more of a lane closure guidance module, lane and speed limit requirements module, dynamic lane use requirements module, toll information module, module for checking detector values for accuracy, module for formatting traffic data, miscellaneous data module, and static database module, said one or more module operatively coupled to the processor for developing driving lane and target speed selection.
Independent claims3